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Where are the trails?

• Infirmary Mound Park: Six miles of multipurpose trails open to hikers, leashed pets, mountain bikers and horses. • Taft Reserve: Eight 8 miles of multipurpose trails open to hikers, leashed pets, mountain bikers and horses. • Lobdell Reserve: Six miles of multipurpose trails open to hikers, leashed pets, mountain bikers and horses. • Riverview Preserve: Three miles of trails open to hikers. • Ohio Canal Greenway: Almost four-mile multipurpose trail open to hikers, leashed pets, mountain bikes and horses. • Morris Woods State Nature Preserve: One and a half miles of trail open to hikers. • TJ Evans and Panhandle bike paths: 44.1 miles of paved bike paths open to joggers, walkers, bikers and rollerbladers. For more information and maps of the Licking County trails system, visit www.lickingparkdistrict.com or www.lickingcountytrails.com. Source: Licking Park District and Licking County Trails Alliance

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Whether it’s hiking, biking or just walking, getting kids outside and on the trails is a great way to keep them active and healthy.

Licking County has a great system of trails and bike paths just waiting to be taken advantage of, with more than 25 miles of park trails and more 44 miles of paved bike paths.

Erica Swanger, health educator with the Licking County Health Department, said trails are a great place for kids to get their recommended 60 minutes of play per day because they can use their imaginations.

“Exercise is almost like a stigma word for kids sometimes. I think a lot of people hear, ‘Let’s go exercise,’ and they’re turned off. But if you hear, ‘Let’s go explore outside on the trails,’ it has a little more allure to it,” she said.

While the pull of nature might be enough to entice adults to go on a hike, kids might need a little more encouragement. Making the trails feel like an adventure is a great way to make them more appealing to kids.

Incorporating activities — tag, capture the flag or a nature scavenger hunt, for example — along the way are a few ways to make the trails more exciting to kids.

But the best way to get kids interested in trails is to make a hike or a bike ride a family event, Swanger said.

“I think a lot of kids want their parents to play with them,” she said. “I think it’s great for restoring family dynamic and getting healthy together. Behavior is learned, so if the parents seem interested in it, the kids will be more interested.”

If kids are going to be out on the trails for a few hours, it might be a good idea to pack a healthy snack for them that will give them the boost of energy they need to keep going.

Trail mix might seem like an obvious choice, but the snack is not always the healthiest, said Shari Gallup, an Ohio State University extension educator who specializes in health and wellness.

“What’s good about trail mix is that there’s no one recipe — you can make it out of almost anything. But you have to be careful with it because it has a lot of calories for such a small amount,” Gallup said.

That doesn’t mean trail mix is out as a snacking option, but because children don’t need as many calories as adults, portion control is important. To keep it healthy, Gallup suggested using dried fruits, granola, almonds or peanuts and cereals and avoiding too much chocolate.

If dealing with portion sizes sounds too complicated, fruits and vegetables always are a good go-to snack because they’re healthy, pack in some energy-boosting carbohydrates and easily fit into a snack-sized plastic bag, she said.

“I don’t think kids care what they eat when they’re outside running around, so it’s a good opportunity for parents to give their kids fruits and veggies,” Gallup said.

However, she said parents shouldn’t feel obligated to constantly feed their kids. If kids recently have had lunch, a snack probably isn’t necessary. What’s more important is staying hydrated with plenty of water.

“If you’ve just had lunch, then nothing really is needed. ... You don’t want to put those calories back in right away,” Gallup said.